Di Venuto hurries Durham to victory

Durham 194 and 179 for 5 (Di Venuto 100*, Mason 3-35) beat Worcestershire 193 and 179 by five wickets
Scorecard

It took Durham less than an hour and a quarter on the fourth and final day to complete their fourth championship victory of the season, overcoming Worcestershire and the weather by a margin of five wickets. Their hero in the home straight was their Tasmanian opening batsman Michael Di Venuto, who profited from a missed chance to reach an unbeaten century, his 50th in first-class cricket, despite the turnover of partners at the other end; for the losers, Matt Mason deserves credit for a superb bowling spell with the odds stacked against him.

If Durham had been reading some of the weather forecasts, which as so often tended to favour doomsday predictions, they would have been far more worried about the rain than about Worcestershire as they began the morning needing another 115 runs to win their match with nine wickets left. In contrast to the previous day, cloud cover was in place at the start of play, but the humidity suggested rain later in the day was possible, but by no means imminent.

Durham presumably had set their sights on victory by lunch. Mason immediately showed top form with the ball, moving it at pace and troubling both batsmen with his movement in the air. Will Smith was eager to get on with scoring and he swung a ball from Chris Whelan over fine leg for six in the day's third over; however, in Whelan's next over he slashed at a ball outside off stump, which bounced off the hands of second slip only to be caught by first.

The cricket was always interesting as the batsmen were intent on brisk scoring, which meant taking risks against the swinging ball. Worcestershire lost the opportunity of another quick wicket when Di Venuto, on 49, was dropped off a fairly easy chance to long leg, moving in, thus reaching his half-century off 77 balls, mainly through leg-side strokes. This may have been a crucial miss. Gordon Muchall played a couple of strokes of fine class, proving that he is still playing well short of his potential in first-class cricket, including boundaries from a superb cover-drive and an invigorating pull. But then he edged a swinging ball from Mason low into the slips to depart for 14.

Dale Benkenstein was certainly a man in a hurry, taking only seven minutes to race to 17 off 11 balls before he edged another moving ball from the excellent Mason to the keeper. Mason quickly removed Ian Blackwell as well, for 3, the latter going for a big hit and skying a catch at mid-off. But at this point Durham were 155 for 5 and seemed to consider victory a formality and the regular loss of wickets no real problem.

Di Venuto had a century in mind, and he happily laid into the irregular off-breaks of Moeen Ali, as Worcestershire resorted to spin at both ends. He raced into the nineties by taking nine off the over, the crisp confident strokes of a man who has a date with destiny, and in the next over from Moeen completed both his personal objective and his team's quest for victory with aplomb. It took him 122 balls, and Worcestershire must have contemplated ruefully on what might have happened had they caught him earlier.

Overall Worcestershire were not disgraced, but they were let down mainly by the lack of resolve and confidence in their batting. Their seam and swing bowlers did a fine job, but they needed more runs to bowl at than their top order gave them.